Brussels, 19/12/2000 (Agence Europe) - The extraordinary session of the Council convened by Elisabeth Guigou, French Employment and Solidarity Minister, on Wednesday 20 December, has just one item on the agenda: the statute of the European Company (EC).
Further to the conclusions of the European Council in Nice and pending the opinion of the European Parliament that should be consulted again (the first consultation on this text, which has changed considerably in the meantime, dates back to 1981), the Council should reach a political agreement on the regulation relating to the statute of the EC and on the directive concerning worker involvement in the EC. The French Presidency therefore hopes to reach common guidelines on both these texts with a view to the formal decision to come after the new opinion of the European Parliament. By adapting the overall architecture of the EC's statute (generally approved in May 1999) to the Nice conclusions, it is foreseen that: 1) the reference provisions relating to worker involvement in the EC, which come currently under Article 47 b of the regulation, will be transferred to the directive; 2) a new paragraph will be added to the directive allowing a Member State not to apply these reference provisions, in conformity with the conclusions of Nice; 3) a new provision will be introduced in the regulation determining the conditions for registering an EC formed through a merger in a Member State having chosen not to introduce "rules of participation", pursuant to decisions taken in Nice. For these decisions, see paragraph 22 of the "Presidency's Conclusions" in EUROPE/Special Edition of 10 December.
The Council on Wednesday will begin work at 10h45. The European Commission will be presented by Ms Diamantopoulou.